Ben Bernanke, This is Your Life: BoJ "Won't Tolerate Deflation"

The Bank of Japan held interest rates at 0.1 percent and policy makers said they are intolerant of price declines amid signs deflation may undermine the economic recovery.

The policy board “does not tolerate a year-on-year rate of change in the CPI equal to or below zero percent,” the central bank said in a statement in Tokyo today after the unanimous rate decision.

Bonds rose as today’s warning on prices signaled the central bank is unlikely to raise rates until inflation returns to the world’s second-largest economy. Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and his colleagues refrained from unveiling more policy actions, choosing instead to watch the effect of a 10 trillion yen ($111 billion) lending program adopted two weeks ago after the government urged them to do more to fight deflation.